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declaration that she was fighting the Empire, the war continued. It passed into the
second, more prolonged and more stubborn phase.
Immediately upon the proclamation of a Republic in France, the General
Council issued its second Manifesto concerning the war (September 9, 1870). It was
again written by Marx, and by its profound analysis of the historic moment, and its
veritable prophetic insight, it represented one of the most inspired pieces of Marx's
writings.
We shall recall now that Marx had prognosticated even in the first Manifesto
that this war would lead to the destruction of the Second Empire. The second
Manifesto started out with a reference to this forecast. Not less correct was the
criticism he had previously made of Prussian foreign policy. The so-called defensive
war degenerated into a war on the French people. Long before the fall of Sedan and
the capture of Napoleon, as soon as the incredible disintegration of Bonaparte's army
had become a known fact, the Prussian military camarilla declared itself in favour of
a policy of conquest. Marx exposed the hypocritical behaviour of the liberal German
bourgeoisie. Utilising the information supplied by Engels, who as a specialist had
been assiduously following up the development of the war and had foretold the fall of
Sedan, Marx exposed the fallacious military arguments advanced by Bismarck and
the Prussian generals in justification of the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine.
Being opposed to any annexations or indemnities, he maintained that such a
forced peace would lead to another war.
France would want to regain what she had lost and would seek an alliance
with Russia. Tsarist Russia which had lost its hegemony after the Crimean War
would again become the arbiter of the destinies of Europe. This inspired prophecy,
this foresight of the direction European history would take, is a striking and practical
proof of the essential truth of the materialist conception of history, It is concluded in
the following words:
"Do the Teuton patriots really believe that liberty and peace will
be guaranteed to Germany by forcing France into the arms of
Russia? If the fortune of her arms, the arrogance of success, and
dynastic intrigue lead Germany to a dismemberment of France,
there will then only remain two courses open to her. She must at
all risks become the avowed tool of Russian aggrandisement, or,
after some short respite, make again ready for another
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'defensive' war, not one of those new-fangled 'localised' wars,
but a war of races -- a war with the combined Slavonian and
Roman races."
Our contemporary German patriots were fated to see this prophecy come true
to the last letter.
The Manifesto was concluded with an exposition of the practical problems
that were then confronting the working-class. The German workers were urged to
demand an honourable peace and the recognition of the French Republic. The
French workers, who were in even more difficult straits, were advised to watch the
bourgeois republicans vigilantly and to utilise the Republic for the purpose of rapidly
developing their class organisation and achieving their emancipation.
Immediate events fully justified Marx's distrust of the French republicans.
Their contemptible conduct and their readiness to enter into an agreement with
Bismarck rather than make the slightest concession to the working class, brought
about the Paris Commune (March 18 to May 29, 1871). After a heroic struggle that
lasted three months, this first experiment in the dictatorship of the proletariat under
most unfavourable conditions, failed. The General Council was not in a position to
give the Frenchmen the necessary help. The French and German armies cut Paris
from the rest of France and the rest of the world. The Commune, indeed, awakened
universal sympathy. There were revolutionary responses even in remote Russia.
During the existence of the Commune Marx tried to keep up communication
with Internationalists in Paris. A few days after the defeat of the Commune Marx
wrote at the request of the General Council the now famous Address 8 He stepped
forth in defence of the Paris communards who were maligned by the entire bourgeois
press. He showed that the Paris Commune was a colossal step forward in the
evolution of the proletarian movement, that it was the prototype of the proletarian
state which would undertake the realisation of communism. Long before, as a result
of the experience of the Revolution of 1848, Marx had come to the conclusion that
the working class, after having seized power, could not simply lay hold of the
bourgeois apparatus of the state, but that it would first have to demolish this
bureaucratic machine and the police force upon which it rested. The experience of
the Commune proved to him the soundness of his conviction. It proved that having
seized power, the proletariat was forced to create its own machinery of state adapted
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to its own needs. The same experience of the Commune also showed that the
proletarian state cannot exist within the limits of even a central city. The power of the
proletariat must embrace the whole country for it to have any chances of becoming
strengthened; it must sweep over a number of capitalist countries in order to be
assured of a final victory.
Bakunin and his followers arrived at entirely different conclusions. Their
opposition to politics and the state became even more fervent. They urged the
creation of communes in separate towns as soon as possible; these communes would
inspire other towns to follow suit.
The defeat of the Commune brought about very unfavourable consequences
upon the International itself. The French labour movement was paralysed for a few
years. It was represented in the International by a host of communard refugees
amongst whom bitter factional strife was raging. This strife was carried over into the
General Council.
The German labour movement also suffered a serious setback. Bebel and
Liebknecht, who protested against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, and who had
declared their solidarity with the Paris Commune, were arrested and condemned to
confinement in a fortress. Schweitzer who had lost the confidence of the party was
forced to leave it. The followers of Liebknecht and Bebel, the so-called Eisenachers,
continued to work independently of the Lassalleans. These began to draw nearer to
each other only after the government had swooped down with equal ferocity upon the
two conflicting factions. The International thus lost support from the two greatest
countries on the continent.
Moreover, there was a break in the English labour movement too. The war
between the two most industrialised continental countries had benefited the English
bourgeoisie not less than the last European war benefited the American. It was able
now to give some share of its enormous profits to numerous workers in the chief
industries. The trade unions gained a greater freedom of action. Several of the old
laws that had aimed against the unions were abolished. All this had its effect on a few
of the members of the General Council, which had been playing an important part in
the trade-union movement. To the extent with which the International was becoming
more radical, to the same extent were many of the unions growing more and more
moderate. Utilising their position for personal advantages, they continued to be
members of the General Council only in form. The Commune and the bitter attacks it
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